Modern history

The 19th and 20th centuries

Meeting of the Cortes de Navarra, according to a 19th century engraving

The end of the 15th century’s internal rivalries, which concluded with the victory of the Beaumontes’ camp and the Castilian conquest, lead to an economic resurgence that brought with it the recovery of demographic equilibrium, affected by the protracted civil war. It also brought stability to economic life and reinforced the foundations of the institutional structure of the Kingdom of avarre, as it continued to be called until the middle of the 19th century.

From the Carlist Wars to the present day

The situation of political and institutional stability begins to deteriorate in the second half of the 18th century, with the centralist policies of the Bourbons. This will generate ever-increasing tension that will explode in 1833 in the form of the First Carlist War.

The military conflict will conclude in 1839, with an armistice on the part of the Carlists, and from an institutional and political perspective it will be embodied in the so-called Ley Paccionada of 1841.

By virtue of this law, the historical Kingdom of Navarre becomes part, under the status of Province, of the liberal state, whilst it still maintains institutions and legislation from its age-old system of Fueros (regional rights), especially those involving taxation and the administration.

This particular situation persisted throughout the Restoration, the 2nd Republic and Franco’s regime. With the advent of democracy and following the Spanish Constitution of 1978, the regional system for Navarre becomes integrated within the new institutional regime, by virtue of the Organic Law of 1982 for the Reintegration and Improvement of the Régimen Foral (Regional System) of Navarre.